Lots of People:We already know about the affair, so we don't have to worry about blackmail, so he should be able to keep his job.

Not true. For all we know, Petraeus has had dozens of affairs, it's just that coontil now) he's only been sleeping with sane people. But even if Broadwell was his only paramour, he still can't be the head of the CIA anymore.

The fact that Petraeus is vulnerable to the attention of a young female admirer is exactly the sort of weakness intelligence officers look for when they're trying to acquire assets. You have to add to that the fact that he was perfectly fine with violating a solemn vow until he got caught, and that he intended to keep his prestigious and high-paying job... until he got caught. He was also deeply involved with a group of people who had everything to gain by exposing classified and personal information in exchange for money, privileges and inside access*. You don't have to be a psychologist to understand why foreign intelligence agencies would be interested in a guy like that. And now his weaknesses and vulnerabilities are extremely public; they don't even have to work to figure him out.

This is how you turn someone against their country. You find what their problems are and promise you can fix them. There are bonus points if you can make their problems worse. Petraeus can't be the head of the CIA for the same reason you wouldn't want an addict or someone with severe financial problems to be head of the CIA. It's not the moral violations that are a problem. It's the vulnerability this scandal has exposed. And the best way to solve it is to get that guy (and his con artist friends) away from classified information.

I'm not saying Petraeus is a bad person or that his public service wasn't valuable. But once you do something once it's easy to do it again, and next time it might not be with someone who has a security clearance.

*Speaking of inside access, what does one have to do to be come an "honorary consul" of a foreign country? Why would the government of South Korea lead that person to believe they had "diplomatic inviolability?" Do you really think it's an accident that someone who holds fancy parties for top military brass is also helping South Korean nationals make "trade" and "cultural" connections in the U.S.?

chuckufarlie:Can somebody explain to me how any of this is important? why should Petraeus resign for having sex with a woman that was not his wife? If everybody inside the beltway was held up to that standard, they would all have to resign. They only person that should be pissed is his wife.

Lets say I'm a Chinese spy:

Listen up Davey boy, if you don't let me in on insert sensitive national security secret here, I'll expose your affair and ruin your personal and professional life.

Looking through the coverage of this 'scandal' it amazed me the lengths that grown-ass men will go to in response to some fawning attention from an attractive woman. Tell me that you don't look at the picture of 'shaved my head to conceal my receding hairline' agent next to the picture of 'socialite with fake boobs' and think that here's a guy trying to impress a woman that has always been out of his league. Same deal with Allen and Petraeus (though at least Petraeus got his knob polished) - it all just smacks of trying to impress women way to young for them by talking about all their power and confidential knowledge.

It shouldn't surprise me - I'm sure I'd respond in the same way if I hadn't taken the precaution of having zero power or influence over anything of importance.

wambu:I suspect that there were some classified documents in the Google Docs dead drop that the lovers shared or the mistress got some clasified info via pillow talk. Both are serious breaches of security, especially for the Director of the C.I.Farking.A.

I've worked with sensitive info before (at a hospital) and the idea that you'd casually share something like a patient's name - or a missile site, or a troop movement, or anything remotely resembling sensitive information - is so ludicrous, especially for someone who managed to not be a farkup for 30+ years in the military (even earning some stars), it barely warrants consideration.

You'd need some kind of something (evidence, allegation) to lead you down that path. Unless our Ms Kelley knows things she shouldn't (or has documents she shouldn't even have seen), I'd abandon that speculation.

// I know she had sensitive documents in her house, but so do many, many people (with government-issued laptops)// should she never have been near them in the first place (i.e. is she not even cleared to know what's in them), forget the "having them in an insecure facility" part

chuckufarlie:Diogenes: chuckufarlie: Can somebody explain to me how any of this is important? why should Petraeus resign for having sex with a woman that was not his wife? If everybody inside the beltway was held up to that standard, they would all have to resign. They only person that should be pissed is his wife.

Potential to blackmail the highest intelligence officer in the land, duh. And as I said in another thread, this whole thing has revealed some serious flaws in the system that are being overshadowed by the sleaze.

there is no potential for blackmail. We all know about it now.

As for your serious flaws idea. That is as stupid as it gets.

The reason it's a career ender here is because it's a breach of protocol. Yes, in this instance, the cat's out of the bag. But the policy is in place so this shiat, and the potential for security and intelligence breaches, doesn't happen in the first place.

Your suggesting the rules are irrelevant once the transgression has occurred. THAT is as stupid as it gets.

Diogenes:chuckufarlie: Can somebody explain to me how any of this is important? why should Petraeus resign for having sex with a woman that was not his wife? If everybody inside the beltway was held up to that standard, they would all have to resign. They only person that should be pissed is his wife.

Potential to blackmail the highest intelligence officer in the land, duh. And as I said in another thread, this whole thing has revealed some serious flaws in the system that are being overshadowed by the sleaze.

chuckufarlie:Can somebody explain to me how any of this is important? why should Petraeus resign for having sex with a woman that was not his wife? If everybody inside the beltway was held up to that standard, they would all have to resign. They only person that should be pissed is his wife.

Potential to blackmail the highest intelligence officer in the land, duh. And as I said in another thread, this whole thing has revealed some serious flaws in the system that are being overshadowed by the sleaze.

An associate of Humphries told ABC News that it was hard to believe that Humphries had contacted elected officials about the case because "everyone knows that's professional suicide" and Humphries is "top notch."

The same could be said of Petraus.

And this guy looks like Rick Scott's twin. I wonder if the Governor underwent mitosis.